RE: Doc. departments in the Corporate Org. Chart

[Sanjay Srikonda <SSrikonda -at- invlink -dot- com>]

FWIW, I used to be part of QA, but now, with our latest reorganization
effort, I'm now part of development.  I've seen this a lot actually, unless
there's a Documentation/Training department or Corporate Communications or
some other aptly named department, Documentation is oftentimes lumped into
either development or QA or sometimes left in the hallway by itself.  But,
that's just what I've seen over the last 10 years.

-----Original Message-----
From: Christine -dot- Anameier -at- seagate -dot- com
[mailto:Christine -dot- Anameier -at- seagate -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2000 10:53 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Doc. departments in the Corporate Org. Chart


Funny, I was just yesterday explaining to my agency that I feel
documentation--at least, end user documentation--doesn't really belong in
the development department.

Right now I'm the sole writer in a small development group, and staff
meetings are almost surreal. We go around the table describing what we're
working on, and asking for whatever assistance we need. Everyone else talks
about the inner workings of the database and the various esoteric back-end
maneuvering to get everything working. Then they get to me--the new
writer--and I wind up saying some variation on, "Well... I'm revising the
training manual for the new version. If anyone has comments on the previous
version or can give me some insight into what problems users were
experiencing, I would appreciate any feedback you can give me." (Silence
descends. Crickets chirp, tumbleweeds whirl by.)

The most helpful assistance I've gotten in previous jobs has been from
implementation and support people. I would MUCH rather have documentation
in the support department (or rather, in a nice quiet area nearby). I want
to talk to the people who talk to the users day in, day out, and who have a
direct stake in making the user's lives easier. I've seen development types
who haven't so much as bumped into a real end user in the hallway in ten
years, and some of them have outright contempt for unsophisticated
users--i.e., my audience. Some of the development people don't understand
why I get worked up over terrible interface design or why I object to error
messages written in Martian.
<snip>

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